Demon Diary Vol. 1by Alysson WyattReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 5 A powerful, sexy-as-hell demon named Eclipse takes on a new apprentice to train as the heir to demon royalty. However, this apprentice, named Raenef, is a girlish, sensitive young boy without any sense of demon protocol, or even a drop of evil in him. This, of course, gives cause for quite a bit of silliness as Eclipse tries (unsuccessfully) to instruct his student in the ways of the demon lords, while Raenef is simply his annoyingly innocent self who just doesn't get it. As time passes, the two of them begin to develop strong bonds of friendship, until it seems that Raenef may not be the only one with something to learn.Despite all the praise I've seen for Demon Diary, after reading it I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I knew before I opened it that it would be shonen ai fluff, but I hadn't expected a total lack of any kind of story worth telling. Plot?? What is this "plot" you speak of? Sorry, we don't serve that here. The art is at times gorgeous, especially the depictions of the male form (however feminine). Other times the style is lighthearted and cutesy. The dialogue's enough to send me bursting into giggles, but humor based primarily on the naivete and profound idiocy of a main character gets tiring after about 50 pages. What's worse, the actual story only takes up two thirds of the book; the rest is filled in by two short stories, neither of which I enjoyed reading whatsoever. Only the art was worth looking at. The attempts at storyline in so few pages were shoddy at best. With the dialogue bubbles drawn the way they were (no arrow indicating the speaker), I had trouble figuring out who was saying what. Talk about frustrating. The so-called "ending" of the first story did more than confuse me. Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong, or maybe I'm just looking too hard, but the entire story "Crystal Heart" makes no sense to me. I've read it three times, and I still don't know what happened. I can't blame the translators; even if I could read Korean, I probably *still* wouldn't get it. I guess I'm just not cut out for these fluffy shonen ai/bishonen sorts of stories. My general preferences include the usual shonen genres: action, adventure, horror, etc. Based on my own tastes and all the male mangaphiles I know, I have a hard time imagining any guys enjoying this book. Demon Diary is filled with beautiful art, feminine men, and lots of cute/funny/sweet moments that will either make you go "aaawwweee" or giggle yourself silly. If you like girly guys and you want to laugh, Demon Diary may be just the thing for you. But if you're like me and get impatient after too much silliness, try something else. Written: January 17, 2004
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